In this podcast episode, John interviews Dr. Greg Gilbaugh to learn how to beat burnout for good. Greg is a seasoned dentist, practice owner, author, and business consultant.

His career involved overcoming multiple practice-destroying disasters and transitioning away from clinical work due to health issues. In addition to leading and managing his practice, he now helps other healthcare professionals build fulfilling practices that enhance, rather than compete with, their personal lives.

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The Missing Link in Healthcare Leadership

Most healthcare professionals receive minimal business training, leading to adopted rather than designed practice models. Dr. Gilbaugh emphasizes a fundamental shift: start with a vision, not a strategy.

What good is it to build the practice of your dreams only to find out it robs you of the life you always wanted? – Dr. Greg Gilbaugh

This approach has helped numerous practitioners, including a surgeon whose practice was crumbling, rebuild with purpose and direction.

Summary

Whether you're feeling trapped in traditional practice models or seeking meaningful transformation, the path to change starts with a clear vision. Dr. Gilbaugh's experience shows that healthcare professionals can build thriving practices while maintaining personal fulfillment.

Want to explore these concepts further? Check out Dr. Gilbaugh's book Letting Good Things Run Wild [Amazon affiliate link*]or visit kalosbusinessgroup.com for free resources, including practice development guides.

Links for today's episode:

• Dr. Greg Gilbaugh's book: Letting Good Things Run Wild [Amazon affiliate link*]
• Kalos Business Group's Website
• Purchase Your All Action Pass Videos and Bonuses from the 2024 Summit (Use Coupon Code 30-OFF)
• The Nonclinical Career Academy

Podcast Editing & Production Services are provided by Oscar Hamilton

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Today's PNC Podcast Transcript

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Transcription PNC Podcast Episode 376

How To Beat Burnout For Good Without Leaving Your Practice

- Interview with Dr. Greg Gilbaugh

John: I recently ran across a dentist, former pastor, and consultant who experienced many of the same challenges that many of you physicians have experienced over the years. I thought it'd be fun to get him on the podcast and ask him a few questions about how he has faced those challenges. So with that, I want to introduce a dentist, Dr. Greg Gilbaugh.

Dr. Greg Gilbaugh: Thanks, John. It's a pleasure to be here. I'm looking forward to a chat with you.

John: Yeah, because you're a business consultant, that's the thing that really piqued my interest and being a dentist, a lot of what you've experienced over the years is very similar to what we physicians go through. So I thought definitely we could learn a lot from you. So maybe you can start by just telling us a little bit about yourself and the story that brought you through to what you're doing now.

Dr. Greg Gilbaugh: No, thank you. Yeah, I came to the University of Iowa when I was a young lad. I came here on a football scholarship. I was an offensive lineman. I wanted to come here and play Big Ten football and go to dental school, and I was able to do that. Bought a small practice in the area, got married, and it was the start of a wonderful season of growth. My wife and I, we currently are standing at nine children that we love nurturing and releasing. But for me, I love the field of dentistry. I love leadership and business. The practice has gone through a lot of what I call significant growth strategies where seven years into the practice, the building was struck by lightning and burned to the ground.

John: Oh, boy.

Dr. Greg Gilbaugh: So that was a time where we said, okay, let's take some insurance money. Let's glean what we know is working well, and now let's next step of growth. So we found a place to lease, started practicing again, and then our community endured what was considered a significant 100-year flood, which brought eight feet of water into our clinic space. So we had to regroup, take an insurance check, rebuild, regrow, and then we had a nice location, nice facility. It was at that point in time out of debt. Personally, professionally, I was thinking about my next stages. We had 14 families that were working with us. And then we had the catastrophic 500-year flood that devastated the area of town where I was in, but this time, no insurance coverage for flooding.

So I was 50 years old. I came home to nine kids and a wife, and we were essentially wiped out. We had nothing left. Decided that at this point in time, I was too young to give up, and I really, really felt it was in my best interest to continue on. So we found a new location. We just restarted from scratch. And I knew at that time, it's like, this is now a much bigger office. Mistakes are costly, so I really took a deep dive into business and leadership. No margin for error.

And what we found was that in five years, we doubled our clinic space, doubled our number of doctors, doubled our number of employees, and significant growth was going on. We had learned a lot. Started to build then another clinic facility, and it was during that time that, real quickly, my hands lost their fine motor skill and fine sensation, and we found out that it was due to some brain trauma from playing football, and I had a significant mold infection from probably walking around and enjoying the floodwaters of the great Midwest.

So that was my transition out of clinical care and then into this world of coaching, leadership, helping healthcare physicians. I'm still at the two clinics four and a half days a week. I love coming here, but I think that what I have learned is of some great benefit to others. So that's where I find myself. I'm still in the game, but it's from a leadership perspective, and then branching out to help others.

John: Wow. Well, probably the pandemic for you is like nothing compared to those first two or three events.

Dr. Greg Gilbaugh: We were able to weather the storm well. It's like, and again, we had told the people, yeah, during the pandemic, "We've gone through stuff before. We've been able to come through on the side. We're going to make it. We're going to make it. So let's come up with a mission. How we're going to do this." And we got through it.

John: So now you're focusing on the business aspects of the practice. Can you give us an idea of the scope in terms of maybe how many are working with you or that kind of thing?

Dr. Greg Gilbaugh: Yeah, I've got a larger general care and orthodontic clinic where we've got four doctors and 30 staff here. This one has been in business for 38 years now. And then right across the parking lot, we purchased some space. And now we've got a pediatric children's clinic that works hand in glove with us at this location. And that one has just gone over four years. We started that from scratch. That now has two doctors working in there and a staff of 12. So I go back and forth. They're both very different. One's just starting out. One's a very mature growing one. So I get to see both ends of the stick, so to speak, keeps me sharp.

John: All right. So you've had to rebuild numerous times. Now you're involved in this. And so at some point, a couple of things happened I think from what I know about you, you decide to help others build their businesses, I think, other professionals in health care. And somewhere along the way, you also wrote a book about doing that. So you can take either one of those and just tell me how that all developed.

Dr. Greg Gilbaugh: Well, when I was out of clinical care and wanted to get my thoughts onto paper, that's where the book came from. I have a relationship with a gentleman. He's my personal executive coach. We've formed a great, fond relationship. He's wrote a number of books. He encouraged me to do the same. And so what I saw really was that there is for us in health care, we get very, very little training and exposure to how do we do the business end of this? We have to figure that out on our own. And then also like, how do we lead people? Very little exposure to that. Leadership can be taught, and it can be embraced and it can be learned and you can become very skillful at it.

The other aspect that I found personally and with many others is that when it comes to the issue of faith, I help them to be able to connect their faith to their profession. There's a big chasm, I think, there where they go to their local church. They're not getting the help they want. They're professional organizations. They're not speaking to it. And there's this big chasm. And when they can connect that, they feel that they have got something significant going on. So the book actually is like integrating your personal faith into your practice so that not only does your faith get deeper, but we talk about basic business fundamentals, and then leadership over a lifetime. And so it gives them a foundation that they can now start to build their specific practice how they want to in a way that will grow and be very fulfilling for them. That's how I serve my clients.

John: Well, as I was looking through the book, I mean, I just want to throw out some of the things that stood out to me for the listeners in case they're thinking of picking it up. But there was a lot in there about stewardship, integrity, service, vision, mission, leadership was a big part of it. So it's not just, okay, here is an integrity of how you do certain business practices, but more of a global and oversight in terms of why you're doing this business and how to do it and the values and so forth, principles that go into it. So that sounds very helpful. Now, what's the name of the book? So we can go find it.

Dr. Greg Gilbaugh: Yeah, the name of the book is Letting Good Things Run Wild. And that can easily be purchased on Amazon, whether an ebook or the paperback. They can also get a copy at my website, which is Kalos Business Group. That's K-A-L-O-S, kalosbusinessgroup.com. They can go there. I also have on there for people that are interested, just a free PDF on key performance indicators.

And I say, here are three, just three key performance indicators. You focus on these, and you will find that your revenues will increase pretty significantly over six months. That could be true in the dental field, that can also be true in the medical field. So there are some things that are free, there are some books to be purchased, I think that you'll find it very encouraging. Because it goes over essentials of building a business, which starts with what is your vision for your business?

This is where I find many people in business, but especially healthcare, when they sit down, and they first come to me, and they'll say, "I need some help." I'll give you an example. I have a physician, a surgeon that I'm working with right now. And I met him last year having a chat in a parking lot of all places, never met him before. We started talking. He had an incredibly a walk through hell of a private practice. Partner docs that left, partner docs, it blew up lawsuits, defamation, slander, disaster, and felt bad for him as he's a great physician. And so I said, "Okay, so how'd you get here?"

And he said, "Well, I hired this guy because I knew him from residency thought he was good." And I said, in essence, he said, "This is what other surgeons how they run their business. So I decided this is how you must run your business. No one ever taught me. So I'm looking at the veterans. This is how they're doing it. And it just totally blew up." And I said, "Okay. So what would you do differently?" And he goes, "I would do this, I would do this, I would do this. And I would do this." And I said, "Well, then, why don't you build that kind of a business?" He goes, "Well, can I?"

I go, "You absolutely can." And just saying, "What is your vision? You know, you've got a great opportunity to start all over here. So what kind of private practice surgical business do you want to build? What does it look like? Where are you going?" And then it's like, how are you going to get there? What's your current reality? Which looks like hell right now. But it's like things are, as I continue to meet with them, it's like, yes, now, our current reality is here, and it's already so much healthier, because he has a vision. There are people who left, but there are people who stay because they go, "I like the vision of this place, it resonates with me. This place is going somewhere, it's doing something." And it's like, okay, how are you going to get from where you're at to where you're going? And what are your next steps?

And then how are you going to help to encourage, lead, serve your team to get there? Whole perspective has changed. He's still in the same location. It's just that the guts of his business have radically changed. And all I've asked him is like, "What do you want to do?" He's never taken the time. And as physicians, you know what it's like, John, it's like everything is so busy, that we don't take time to say, "Where do I actually want this place to go?" That's what leads to burnout. That's what leads to frustration.

In some of our email exchanges, you asked a really good question where you said, "Can a group of physicians, can an individual physician, can they build a private practice that really offers excellent service, a personal fulfillment and a generous income without becoming burned out?" And the answer is a resolutely yes. But it hinges on this, personal fulfillment, what is it? What actually is your personal fulfillment? And so what I do when I work with physicians, dentists is I first work with them, I call them, "What's your life plan?" They go, "Well, what's that? No, what I need, Greg, is I need to know how to hire better staff. I need how to do this. I need new software."

And it's like, those are tools for the trip you're going on. Where are you going? And so we work with them, offer help. Sometimes I say, get away for a day. And I give them a tool. It's like, "What's important to you? What are your main responsibilities right now?" And then they list them. And I said, this is what's important to you right now in your life. And of course, business is one of them. How satisfied are you with all these things? But it gives them a snapshot of their life. And it's like, "What do you want these areas of life to look like in three years, five years, whatever?" Because this is what you're responsible for, like John. This is what's in your lap. What do you want this to look like? Too many times, physicians want to have a independent vision for their business that starts to compete with their life. That leads to frustration.

I remember about eight years ago, when I was talking to a group of about, I think it was about 16 dentists at a mastermind with the intention, all of these dentists want to build multiple practices. It's like the new way. It's like, look, if my profit margins are down to here, I'll have to build multiple so I can get it back up. They were going through an exercise about really their vision. What kind of practice do you want to build? And when I had a chance to talk with them I said, "What good is it to build the practice of your dreams only to find out it robs you of the life you always wanted?" And it was at that moment, I was early in this kind of stuff, but I remember it was like dead silence. Pens stopped working and everyone's eyes got big and they looked at me. I go, "I think I just struck a nerve." Which is like, yes, it doesn't mean you can't build the practice of your dreams.

But if it robs you of that life plan, it's like if it totally sucks you out, you know in medicine and in dentistry it's like we're up at the coaches AP polo, like with divorce and job dissatisfaction and alcohol abuse. And it's like, we're not a real healthy group when we get. And it doesn't have to be that way. And I think if early on, it's like, look, the practice of your dreams, maybe the practice of your dreams that you see like 30 years down the road, that's great.

But what is it going to look like in the next five years? Because your responsibilities are different. Time is God's way of making sure that everything doesn't have to happen all at once. Let's take the long view and make sure that you're genuinely fulfilled so that when you're at work, it's like, I like coming home or I like here. And then when you come home, it's a fulfilled life, not just a career with a bunch of zeros where it's like, I hate going to work. The only reason I go to work is for money.

And then it's like, it's not a very gracious master. When they say, look, this is what will give me fulfillment, which is very different from I'm working with a younger dentist who contacted me because he's like, "I'm in this group practice. I've got a four-year-old, a two-year-old and mum is seven months pregnant. And I feel like I've got no time for myself. I'm living out of fear." And it's like, "That's normal, young man. That's normal, okay? You're just transparent enough to admit it. Okay. You fear failure. You fear the future. You fear finances. I would say you're secure enough to admit it."

So we're working on his life plan. Eventually it's like out of a good, healthy life plan will come your vision for your business. Okay. So it doesn't compete. It enhances your life. So that when you have all of these things starting to grow that you're responsible for, that is fulfilling, that is passionate.

And yes, you can have an incredibly fulfilling life. Now, when you say like a generous income, financial reward, that's the fruit on the tree. That will come when you start serving your people, serving your practice, because when you are a fulfilled physician and you are, when you're fulfilled, you're passionate. That is where burnout starts to go out the back door. Because it's like, I love what I'm doing because I see what it's doing to enhance my life, my family, what I'm called to be, what I really, really, really want to do and become that's fulfilling.

That's why I say Monday is one of my very favorite days because I get to come back here. Because I find where I'm at and how I want to finish my life, I'm a young 65. It's extremely fulfilling for me. That's why we chose to build after natural disasters. That's why we chose to go on after becoming disabled. I find a lot of fulfillment .And the practices have built to such a point. It's not like, wow, that is so unique, Greg. It's like, no, this can happen to others.

John: Let me jump in for a minute here, because I want to reflect on some of the things you've said. I mean, first the vision part of it. So many professionals, they just don't really think about the vision. They think, okay, I'm going to get through school, residency, whatever it is to get that licensed, to get that degree and certification.

And this is the way you practice. And when they step back and say, what's really important to them, as you mentioned, they can see that I don't have to keep doing all of this stuff. That's not fulfilling. That's frustrating. That's not in the line with my principles and my values. And I've just been amazed by the way some physicians have focused more narrowly, maybe, on the part they really love.

Um, and again, that gets back to, you're talking about the vision. And we tend to think, well, these things can't change because it is the way it is. And they become afraid of having those conversations with their partners or their boss or whoever. So do you go into a little bit of that, how to communicate your vision, how to get everybody on the same page so that we're all rolling in the same direction?

Dr. Greg Gilbaugh: That is so key and so important because as let's say the leader, which I always, I make synonyms like you're responsible here. Okay. You communicate it. This is where I really want to take the practice. And if you're with others, you need to communicate. It's like, "Look, this is where I feel it really would benefit the practice." It's so much easier when you start at the beginning, when it's just you and you're starting out. And it's like, this is the trajectory so that when you hire other doctors, come on, it's like, "This is where I'm taking this ship. Um, would you like to join us? And do you bring something to enhance this journey? Don't bring in a competing vision. This is what we are. This is what we're about. This is what's important. And this is where we're going." And you keep communicating that to your people.

People want to come to a place of work that's going somewhere so that they can see what I do today is actually making progress towards what I'm here for. I'm not just going around the cul-de-sac over and over. Okay. And then checking out. I'm actually helping this place move somewhere. And it's a preferred future. It's something that's like, yes, I want to get there. And you repeat it over and over and over. And as the leader, you say, I usually stress to the doctors, find your team, your support people. And if they're doing something well, according to where you want to go, and then our core convictions, the six behaviors that we say are essential for success, you find someone doing that. And it's like, you know what, "Hey, time out. Do you see what you're doing? That's exactly what we're about here."

And then as the old football player say, "Helmet sticker, okay, really good job." And you reward those. You say, "This is what we're about." When you're bringing on staff, help people to join. If you're bringing on a partner, it's like, "I just want to let you know, this is what we're about." You will find that there are people out in your profession, in your lane, in your specialty, subspecialty, they're looking for a place just like that. That's who you want to join.

There are other people's like, might be highly skilled, brilliant, really good. But they have a different preferred future. And it's like, that's okay. Well, which one's better? Well, I'm not going to say which one's better, but this one's mine. This is what we're about. So God bless you and go over there and prosper. Yes. But we can't have competing visions for the limited time, resources, and energy that we have here. So let's all bring it to row in the same direction. When you've got a clinic that's moving in that direction, that is life giving, it's encouraging, it's passionate. And when you hit the bumpy waters, like reality gives us, it's like, we're going to get through this. Because I want to get through this. I'm determined to get through this. And we're going to keep going because there's something so fulfilling and satisfying by experiencing this.

John: Let me shift gears for a minute here. Let's say that I am one of those physicians, I'm in my 50s or 40s or whatever. And I do want to build something of my own. And it's not been working. What does working with you look like? What is an engagement with you in terms of what would someone expect? Because most physicians have never engaged a consultant to help them. So maybe you can just share how that looks.

Dr. Greg Gilbaugh: No, that's really good. First of all, we have a lot of conversations to onboard them, and what are you looking for? What is your desires? And I will, I start off with big picture life plan vision. What are you responsible for? You got a guy that's 50. And it's like I've got maybe two kids and they're college age. Okay. So the parenting is little, we're almost done. Okay. So where would you like to go? What's important?

Okay, and then these things. And then okay, and business is part of it. It's like, okay, where are you at? What's your current reality? Well, I'm a partner or I'm a partner in a practice where I'm solo practitioner and I do like this. I don't like this. What are my passions? What are your strengths? And we do some assessments. It's like, "Hey, you're really good at this. This is how you like to lead. These are your strengths. This is what you bring to the game. So what would that look like if you want to change? If time and money were not a problem, what would you do?" Oh, I'd probably do this. It's like, how realistic is this? Do you see you can do this. And I ask a series of questions like, "Are you willing to pay the cost for this?" "Yeah, because this is what it'll get." "Okay. How do we do this? How do you think, now you know where you're going, what are we going to do in the next year? The next two years? What are your next steps that are going to cause you the most success or the most progress in this journey?"

John: One of the things that I hear a lot from my listeners is that they would like to get to the point where you are now. Now you were sort of you didn't have a choice because of some of the challenges, the health and so forth. But can you encourage them or support them and give them advice for how to get to the point where maybe they just want to run the practice, have other physicians that are on the same page, but really focus on the business, the marketing and the growth and not really the grind of working in the hospital or that kind of thing?

Dr. Greg Gilbaugh: Yeah. That is a great transition, because I feel the greatest asset to a private practice is the people. I mean, as physicians, it's like, look, you're all smart. You all have access to you can go to the bank and get finances, you all have a good career, you can get like, training, equipment, whatever, everyone's got access to what differentiates your practice from another, and it's the people that are in it. When you are then saying, I want to move out of the clinical area, from being a provider, to now developing and leading people so that they are now the multiple providers, okay? You now have time to invest in developing your people and getting them actually better.

Now have more time to focus on the vision. Let the others, some business paradigms call them integrators. They're the people who love all the details. They love to get in there and do all the work. They love being on the front lines, let them do that. Then asking them, what do you need to succeed? I will do what I can to make this place even better.

You always have the commander of the ship, so to speak, it's like I'm going to take responsibility for making this place better. Some physicians, some people find like, wow, this is an avenue that I only thought was possible. This is exactly what I want to do. You think of someone in their 50s like that. Here's a person who's got more, probably discretionary resources, finances, wants more discretionary time and you are at the top of your apex of wisdom. Dude, now is the time to, you have so much to give. You have so much to give.

I just read a great book. It was called Full-Time about work. And the authors, one of the premise they said goes, "You know what happens when we ask people to retire in their 60s and get out of the marketplace, we are actually cheating the 30 year olds from great mentorship." And it's like, that was highlighted over and over. It's like, yes and amen. You have so much more to give now in developing people and really making your clinic, your practice become a place that is just exceptional, exceptional. And people want to work there.

John: I think a lot of us would love to do that. If we're in that situation, we can just figure out how to make it work. We're going to run out of time, so I guess just any closing remarks. So first, again, tell us about the book, where we can find the book and the website, and then any advice for again, mid-career physicians who are just feeling frustrated and they're not sure what their next step should be.

Dr. Greg Gilbaugh: Yes. Again, thank you, John. The name of the book is Letting Good Things Run Wild, the integration of faith into your business so that your faith deepens, your business actually gets much better, and your leadership impact becomes incredible. You can find it on, of course, Amazon Bookstores, but you can also get it at our website, Kalos Business Group. That's K-A-L-O-S businessgroup.com. You can order it there. Again, there's also the free PDF on the three key performance indicators, and if you focus on them, you're going to find some good results.

Again, I think that if they want to check out my website. It'll have a lot of stuff there, and if they want to set up a call with me, there's a place to set up a call, and we can just talk, because sometimes doctors in healthcare, dentists or physicians, chiropractors, whatever it is, they don't know what's actually possible. They only know what they have been experienced in their lane, and it's usually like, I'm frustrated, so I'm going to find a different line of work, or I'm just going to retire and get out of the psych.

That's only two options of a plentiful banquet, okay? There's a lot of stuff to choose. You just don't know what's being served, and what's possible. And again, I serve clients by not telling them, this is what you need to do. I try to ask them questions and try to pull out within them what their desires and what their passions are, and then ask questions to find out, is that something that you would like to pursue? Because then I think I can help you in this new journey.

And sometimes it's the second wind that many of them really want, because they, why did you get into this profession in the first place? Well, I want to help people. A lot of ways to help people, and you don't have to throw away all of this experience that you have gleaned over decades. Maybe it's being prepared to do this in your final season of life, which could be your most enjoyable, fruitful, and impactful season of your life.

John: Yeah, it's true. And we've experienced, you've seen people that have done it, obviously I have as well. So it's just a great message. Well, I want to thank you, Greg, for being here today, sharing your wisdom and your resources with us. Be sure I'll have those links for my listeners. They can go and take a look at the PDFs, the downloads that you have, and also learn more about your consulting business. So I guess with that, I'll say goodbye.

Dr. Greg Gilbaugh: Dr. John, one of the highlights of my day. Thank you for letting me come on and visit with you. It's been a pleasure.

John: Okay. Take care.

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An Important Business and Management Tool

In today's episode, John describes why the SWOT Analysis is an important tool for physician leaders and how to use it for project and strategic planning.

The process of shifting to a nonclinical career often involves learning and applying new business knowledge and skills. Most physicians have not been exposed to formal project management or strategic planning concepts during their medical education. The SWOT Analysis is a well-known business tool that is easy to learn and implement.

Our Show Sponsor

We're proud to have the University of Tennessee Physician Executive MBA Program, offered by the Haslam College of Business, as the sponsor of this podcast.

The UT PEMBA is the longest-running, and most highly respected physician-only MBA in the country. It has over 700 graduates. And, the program only takes one year to complete. 

By joining the UT Physician Executive MBA, you will develop the business and management skills you need to find a career that you love. To find out more, contact Dr. Kate Atchley’s office at (865) 974-6526 or go to nonclinicalphysicians.com/physicianmba.

Did you know that you can sponsor the Physician Nonclinical Careers Podcast? As a sponsor, you will reach thousands of physicians with each episode to sell your products and services or to build your following. For a modest fee, your message will be heard on the podcast and will continue to reach new listeners for years after it is released.  The message will also appear on the website with over 8,000 monthly visits and in our email newsletter and social media posts. To learn more, contact us at john.jurica.md@gmail.com and include SPONSOR in the Subject Line.

Our Episode Sponsor

Dr. Debra Blaine is a physician like many of you, and her greatest challenge was fear. The whole concept of leaving clinical medicine was terrifying. But she is so much happier now as a professional writer and a coach. According to Debra, “It’s like someone turned the oxygen back on.”

If fear is part of your struggle, too, she would like to help you push through those emotional barriers to go after the life you really want. Click this link to schedule a free chat.

Or check out her website at allthingswriting.com/resilience-coaching.

Building a Stronger Skill Set for Career Advancement

This week, John emphasizes the importance of acquiring new skills to enhance one's professional profile. The focus is on business skills crucial for executive and management positions. John suggests that expanding one's skill set in negotiating, contracting, health law, management principles, HR principles, and leadership can significantly enhance attractiveness to employers in the healthcare sector.

Mastering the SWOT Analysis in 15 Minutes

By sharing personal experiences and using a hypothetical healthcare scenario, John illustrates how SWOT analysis can be effectively applied to make informed decisions. Below is an example discussed during the presentation.

Decision Whether to Expand Healthcare Services

Scenario: John recounted a situation where his team needed to decide whether to expand healthcare services (urgent care) into a new area.
– Strengths: The organization was the largest and most successful hospital in the community, with a significant financial advantage, brand recognition, and a successful history of physician recruitment.
– Weaknesses: Lack of experience in urgent care, ongoing strategic initiatives such as starting an open heart program, recruiting a new radiology group, and completing a new wing addition to the hospital.
– Opportunities: Rental space availability, community demand for more physicians, and a supportive medical group interested in expanding primary care services.
– Threats: Large uninsured population, potential external competitors, and concerns about the reaction of the existing medical staff.

By considering the above factors that were discovered during a SWOT Analysis, our team was better able to make an informed decision about the risks and benefits of proceeding with the planned expansion. Based on this analysis, our health system decided to move forward with this initiative.

Using a SWOT Analysis in Other Situations

Doing a  SWOT analysis is also very useful in the context of regular strategic planning meetings. When dealing with various strategic initiatives a SWOT analysis of each can be part of the decision-making process for allocating resources to specific projects. A SWOT Analysis will help identify priorities, assess the potential impact of each one, and help decide how to allocate resources effectively.

Summary

John illustrates how SWOT analysis can be effectively applied to make informed decisions in the healthcare sector. It is a simple process that any healthcare leader can learn to do. And it makes a great addition to your portfolio of management and leadership skills needed to land your first executive position.

NOTE: Look below for a transcript of today's episode. 

EXCLUSIVE: Get a daily dose of inspiration, information, news, training opportunities, and amusing stories by CLICKING HERE.

Links for Today's Episode:

• How to Pursue a Nonclinical Career in Hospital Management – 080
• How to Deploy a Powerful Tool to Identify Goals – 054
• From SWOT Analysis to Inspired Goal Setting
• When to Use a SWOT Analysis
• Dr. Debra Blaine's Coaching Services

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Podcast Editing & Production Services are provided by Oscar Hamilton

Today's PNC Podcast Transcript

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Transcription PNC Podcast Episode 336

Add the SWOT Analysis to Your Growing Skill Stack

John: It's a good idea if you're thinking about moving into some other area that you might consider obtaining new skills that you can stack on your existing skills, and that makes you more attractive to certain types of jobs. And a lot of those skills and a lot of that knowledge is basically business skills and information. In fact, I was thinking about this earlier and much of what I'm going to talk about today, the types of skills that you might want to accrue, we talked about last time. You're pretty much going to find those if you happen to be a member of the American Association for Physician Leadership, including a leader in an executive position. So, you're going to need to know all of those business skills like negotiating and contracting, health law, and management principles, HR principles, leadership principles, and so on and so forth.

Today, I want to give you a little mini MBA course in 15 minutes. This is a session in which we are going to talk about SWOT analysis. What is a SWOT analysis? Now, I remember probably sitting in a room one day, I think it was shortly after I became VP for medical affairs. I was in the C-suite, and I was listening to these conversations. I was acclimating to this new job, and I heard somebody talk about, "Well, we've got to do our budgeting at the end of the year here, and we're going to be setting some management goals and so we need to do a SWOT analysis. Then we can be prepared to move forward on that." I'm thinking "SWOT analysis, that sounds pretty... Is that like a SWAT team or something?" But for those that know what it is, you're kind of chuckling because the SWOT analysis sounds like some really great tool, but it's been around forever.

The SWOT just simply comes from the acronym of what you're doing when you're doing a SWOT analysis. And that is for whatever problem you're looking at, you're trying to solve and maybe develop a set of goals or make a decision about, you're just going to look at these factors which have been shown to be important in decision making about whether to proceed with something like this or not, or choose from among a multitude of options. We got 10 different things we want to do. How do we figure out which of those 10 are the highest priorities? Well, you could do a SWOT analysis. There's lots of ways that a SWOT analysis is used.

Now, I will mention this. You may want to read about this, and actually, even Wikipedia does a pretty good job describing this, but you can look it up on Google. You can find almost any kind of business management book will have it. I'm sure it's taught in schools that provide MBAs and MMS and MHAs and things like that.

But the SWAT simply refers to the S is Strength. The W is Weaknesses. The O is Opportunities, and the T is Threats. And so, you take whatever it is that you're dealing with and you bring it through that process. I'll tell you when we use this frequently. I would use it with my managers, and sometimes the senior team would use it to develop a maybe an hour or two session at our strategic planning meetings.

Now we had biweekly or weekly strategic planning meetings. Then we would do a SWOT analysis every time at that, although we could do it at a particular meeting. But if we did an annual, you would call more of a management goal meeting, because the old days we did strategic initiatives that would be looking out three to five years. And there's still sometimes where that's important to do, but generally we're doing year by year.

And that's that short term strategic analysis and plan became really the management plan, which meant that every V line goals that the superior had decided we were going to do for that year coming up. We usually did this towards the end of the year, although not quite at the end because we wanted to know what these initiatives would be before we actually set the budget, as opposed to saying, "Well, I think we're going to extend our hours on weekends." You could do that without necessarily a huge budgetary impact. And in that case, the revenues would offset the expenses anyway. But still, even there, you might want to do that.

I've written about in the past an example of what this might look like. So, I'll just give you an example and we'll walk through it. Let's say that we were in a group, either a private group or part of a hospital medical group, and we decided that we were going to do a SWOT analysis to decide whether we should proceed with an expansion into a new primary care or urgent care service in a new area that we hadn't been in before. We're like, "Okay, we're in a hospital, we have a competitor hospital basically within walking distance. There are some other competitors out further, but basically we have that to contend with." And then we have to consider all the factors that might go into whether we can and should do this. Do we have the budget for it? Are we growing? Do we want to grow? Do we have staff for it? And so forth.

So, let's see what the SWOT analysis might look like. And this is just a partial SWOT analysis, but we're looking at this. And so, let's talk about in a brainstorm about our strengths. At the time, we were definitely the biggest hospital of the two and the most successful I would say in the community. We had a much bigger bottom line. We had $300 or $400 million net revenues, and the other one maybe had a third of that. We had employed a base of physicians. We were fairly successful at recruiting physicians. We had a very healthy bottom line for the last five years. We were making money unlike other hospitals in the state of Illinois who many were losing money.

And what are the other strengths? We had a great brand recognition. We had gone through some marketing consultations in previous years. We had some pretty tight branding and marketing. We had good logos and they had been consistent color palette and that sort of thing. Like I said, the finances were strong.

And then the other thing is, do we have physicians interested in this? And we did have those inside the medical group, the primary care doctors already interested in finding new locations to do this. And if we looked at who was in our team right now, the team that was running the group had a lot of depth. And so, we could take on, we felt in that situation, pretty readily expanding into a new territory. Now, we would also have to decide things like "Are we going to build or are we going to lease some space? How much do we want to commit to this from a budgetary standpoint? Is it going to be enough?" But so far so good.

Now, weaknesses. At the time we were looking at adding an urgent care clinic. Basically we had no experience in urgent care. We were not doing any urgent care. There were some urgent cares in the periphery of our service area. They were all either independent, freestanding, individual urgent cares or large regional groups that we're expanding. And it's a little different competing, let's say, with an urgent care that's run by an entrepreneur as opposed to an urgent care run by a hospital, which typically loses money, but they make it up on the referrals and that kind of thing. No expertise in that.

We had already several pretty pressing strategic initiatives. I don't remember exactly, but let's say that we were do starting an open heart program and we were in the process of recruiting new radiology group and we were still finishing up the addition of a new wing to the hospital. Those are weaknesses because there's a lack of depth in terms of the ability to manage something at maybe a higher level management directors and VPs because we had these other big projects going on because we didn't have the experience.

And the other thing is we were really having trouble at that time recruiting staff fast enough to maintain and keep up with our growth. The area we were looking to go and didn't have urgent care. In fact, the general area around us didn't have urgent care. We were looking at ways to prepare for value-based contracting or prepaid plans, keeping costs down basically which means keeping people out of the emergency room, which is basically what primary care and urgent care does if you have enough capacity. Shunt those people. That's one opportunity we had never pursued before.

It just so happened there was rental space available at several locations in the town in which we were looking to put the urgent care. And we had heard that the community definitely wanted more physicians. We probably should have done a little more digging on that, whether what type of physicians, but basically they just wanted physicians because there was a lack of. This place is a good 30 minute drive outside of the main area where our hospital was located, and it was pretty rural, but still had some population density there.

Now the threats. That's T. The threats for the SWOT analysis could be things like, again, you just look all those areas, finance, growth, marketing, branding, reputation, quality, staffing and HR issues. All those things. And now you look at the threats. Mostly we're looking at threats that are coming from outside, but one threat is that there was a very large uninsured population. Sometimes that could be tricky in terms of how to set it up and how to make sure that you could serve the needs but not lose a lot of money in the process.

The second threat was that we had heard there were both competitors external to our market looking to expand potentially. And then also at the other hospital and in a group of primary care physicians thinking of doing it themselves. They were probably going to start it on their own, in their own offices and expand maybe into this other thing. We need to be aware about that.

And the other threat that we came up with at that time was the fact that our medical staff might not like this idea of us recruiting more and more physicians because a lot of the medical staff at that time were still private medical staff. They were not employed. And so, they would feel threatened by us and they could do things that would make it difficult. They could say, "Okay, we're taking all our business dealer hospital because they're not hiring physicians as much as you are to compete with us. So, those are the kind of examples of some of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.

Now you do that for five or six or seven different projects that you're thinking about. And then by balancing those out and really get into the financial piece, you'll need a pro forma or at least a thumbnail sketch of what the cost of the different projects are, and then what's the return on a clinic or something that might take two or three or four years to really break even. If you add a new service line and get to be successful in three or four months, then you're going to get the return on investment more quickly.

What we would do from taking that SWOT analysis, we would take that to the next step of goal setting so that this is how we would translate it. We would use language like this. For my department, how can we utilize our strengths and acts to take advantage of the opportunity? That's the strengths, the S. How can we utilize our strengths in this A, to minimize the threat coming from B, or how can we take advantage of the opportunity to Z minimize our weaknesses in V.

Let me just give you some examples. This is how we would phrase things if we're going to put some of these together. Following what I just mentioned, I'd say for my department, this would be a manager talking. I had usually between four and eight departments reporting to me. But for my department, how can we utilize our financial strength and strong interest by the medical group to staff an urgent care clinic? Again, how can we utilize our strong management team? That was one of our strengths, to minimize the threat of the large percentage of uninsured in the market. Somehow take care of the uninsured, we've got a good team, we need to leverage them.

Another example, how can we take advantage of community support to minimize our weakness, which is difficulty in recruiting support staff. How do we get the community to help support us getting staff in? And there are big ways to do that. That's where I'm going to end it. But this is something that like I said, you can learn about pretty much anywhere, any business book. You can actually do some business courses at the AAPL that we'll talk about this.

But for a quick review and definition of all the terms, then I would just say go to Wikipedia and look up SWOT analysis. And whatever job you're in and you're being asked to participate in a planning session or to provide feedback. Because I've done this, I am on the board of a hospice and we were doing a strategic plan one year and I said, "Hey, if you want me to take the team through a SWOT analysis, we'll go through the whole thing, all these different areas for where the hospice is in terms of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats." And we used it for the management team to develop their goals for the following year. And since I had done several SWOT analysis and I thought, "Well, let's have him lead this one and then we can get someone next time to lead it for the rest of the team."

All right, that's all for today. Thank you for listening and I will see you next week. Thank you for listening and watching.

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Disclaimers:

Many of the links that I refer you to are affiliate links. That means that I receive a payment from the seller if you purchase the affiliate item using my link. Doing so has no effect on the price you are charged. I only promote products and services that I believe are of high quality and will be useful to you. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

The opinions expressed here are mine and my guest’s. While the information provided on the podcast is true and accurate to the best of my knowledge, there is no express or implied guarantee that using the methods discussed here will lead to success in your career, life, or business.

The information presented on this blog and related podcast is for entertainment and/or informational purposes only. I do not provide medical, legal, tax, or emotional advice. If you take action on the information provided on the blog or podcast, it is at your own risk. Always consult an attorney, accountant, career counselor, or other professional before making any major decisions about your career. 

The post Add the SWOT Analysis to Your Growing Skill Stack appeared first on NonClinical Physicians.

In today’s interview, we meet a physician who has written the book on strategic quitting. Then, we learn about her career journey, and why she believes that knowing when and how to quit is so important.

Lynn Marie Morski graduated from the St. Louis U. School of Medicine, and completed a Family Medicine residency at Mayo Clinic – Arizona, and Sports Medicine Fellowship at the University of Arizona. Not satisfied with those educational accomplishments, she then completed her law degree at the Thomas Jefferson School of Law.

She still works part time at the Veterans Administration. But her real joy comes from coaching and speaking about strategic quitting.

Lynn Marie spreads the gospel of strategic quitting, destigmatizing quitting, and giving people permission to quit whatever isn't working for them in their jobs, relationships, or mindsets.

She is the author of the book “Quitting by Design,” which is also the name of her business (see quittingbydesign.com). She is the host of the Quit Happens Podcast, a speaker, coach, and chief medical editor for Prime. And she also runs a Facebook group called Quitopia.

During our conversation she gives examples of quits she has implemented. And she describes how strategic quitting fits into career change, boosts productivity, and enhances our lives.

“I love speaking to physicians. First off, I am one. And I feel the same strain and stress that the job brings to many people. But I also know that we are often the most stuck in what we're doing.”

Our Sponsor

The University of Tennessee Physician Executive MBA Program, offered by the Haslam College of Business, is the proud sponsor of this podcast. You’ll remember that I interviewed Dr. Kate Atchley, the Executive Director of the program, in Episode #25 of this podcast.

The UT PEMBA is the longest running, and most highly respected physician-only MBA in the country. It has over 650 graduates. Unlike most other ranked programs, which typically have a duration of 18 to 24 months, this program only takes a year to complete. And Economist Magazine recently ranked the business school #1 in the world for the Most Relevant Executive MBA.

University of Tennessee PEMBA students bring exceptional value to their organizations. The curriculum includes a number of major assignments and a company project. Hence, students immediately contribute to their organizations while in the program.

Graduates have taken leadership positions at major healthcare organizations. And they have become entrepreneurs and business owners. If you want to acquire the business and management skills you need to advance your career, contact Dr. Kate Atchley’s office by calling (865) 974-6526 or going to vitalpe.net/physicianmba.

It’s Okay to Quit

Quitting is Lynn Marie’s “super power.” She gives permission to quit and the tools to do it strategically and successfully.

“If I had never strategically quit anything… I would be really unhappy. I think other people want to be happy and fulfilled, and aren't necessarily sure how.”

Click here to download the FREE TRANSCRIPT

Is It Time to Quit?

Do you have heartburn, anxiety, or other somatic symptoms? What parts of your clinical career aren't working? You may not need to leave your entire clinical career and all of medicine behind. But you'll most certainly need to quit the parts that aren't working for you.

If you’re thinking about changing to a non-clinical career, Lynn Marie recommends that you:

• Follow your intuition;
• Create a “No List”; and,
• Visualize what you want to do in the future.

Quitting Perfectionism

Perfectionism often plagues high performers and achievers, such as physicians. At some point, you decided to go into medicine. “If we were perfect, we would be totally happy with that decision. We would love everything we're doing, and we would never consider this non-clinical career.”

Our lives will be so much easier and more productive if we learn to quit perfectionism. Lynn Marie addresses this issue in Episode 28 of her podcast.

Some people think changing their mind means they made a mistake. Different things will appeal to you at different times in your life. “We live so long, there's time to have five different careers in your life. If you change your mind, congratulations! You're human, and you evolved.”

Quitting “Maybes”

People frequently say, “Yes, maybe,” to an invitation. “We're either waiting for something better to come along, or we don't really want to do it.”

“Maybe” doesn’t do anybody any good. “People you've half-made commitments to can't really function properly. Somebody's trying to plan a party. They've got 40 ‘maybes.’ Do they buy one thing or chips for 70?”

Be honest, and say what you mean. Then, everybody benefits. Quit “maybe.” Every decision like this should be a “no”, if it's not a “hell-yes!”

Links for today's episode:

• Dr. Lynn Marie Morski
• Quit Happens Podcast
• Quitting by Design Book
• Prime
• QUITOPIA Facebook Group
• Dr. Lynn Marie Morski on LinkedIn
• Dr. Lynn Marie Morski on Facebook
• Dr. Lynn Marie Morski on Twitter
• Dr. Lynn Marie Morski on Instagram
• Physicians Helping Physicians
• Michelle Mudge-Riley
• Tidying Up with Marie Kondo
• Brave Enough Conference
• Women Physician Wellness Conference

Thanks to our sponsor…

Thanks to the UT Physician Executive MBA program for sponsoring the show. It’s an outstanding, highly rated, MBA program designed for working physicians. It might be just what you need to prepare for that joyful, well-paying career. You can find out more at vitalpe.net/physicianmba.

I hope to see you next time on the PNC Podcast.

If you enjoyed today’s episode, share it on Twitter and Facebook, and leave a review on iTunes.

Podcast Editing & Production Services are provided by Oscar Hamilton.

Disclaimers:

The opinions expressed here are mine and my guest’s. While the information provided on the podcast is true and accurate to the best of my knowledge, there is no express or implied guarantee that using the methods discussed here will lead to success in your career, life or business. 

Many of the links that I refer you to, and that you’ll find in the show notes, are affiliate links. That means that I receive a payment from the seller if you purchase the affiliate item using my link. Doing so has no effect on the price you are charged. And I only promote products and services that I believe are of high quality and will be useful to you, that I have personally used or am very familiar with.

The information presented on this blog and related podcast is for entertainment and/or informational purposes only. It should not be construed as medical, legal, tax, or emotional advice. If you take action on the information provided on the blog or podcast, it is at your own risk. Always consult an attorney, accountant, career counsellor, or other professional before making any major decisions about your career. 

Right click here and “Save As” to download this podcast episode to your computer.

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The post How to Improve Your Life Using Strategic Quitting with Dr. Lynn Marie Morski – 086 appeared first on NonClinical Physicians.